Adjust the menu. The more tightly you can pack your cooler, the more it will hold cold. So put as many things as you can into square containers or square shapes. Think chopped ham rather than ham slices. Think frozen spaghetti-sauce bricks; noodles can be cooked on-site. Pre-chill as much as possible. Get ice in chunks. Loading a cooler for a single overnight can be done sloppily: First add food, and dump ice cubes to fill in all the little spaces.
But it still works better if all the food going in is frozen or cold. Better still: Freeze a rectangular chunk of ice and make room for it in the top of your cooler. If this space can be filled with some sort of insulation, rather than just relying on dead air, the contents of the cooler will stay cold far longer. To check if your cooler has only an air space between the inner and outer skins, open the lid and try to squeeze the inner and outer sides between your thumb and forefinger.
Another way to tell is to tap the outer case with a knuckle. It will sound hollow if there's nothing in there apart from air. Before undertaking this project, be sure to read and follow the spray-foam manufacturer's directions, taking note of recommended temperature and humidity ranges. With the lid removed, drill a series of half-inch holes around the top rim of the cooler, placing them them about 4 or 5 inches apart.
The spacing isn't critical, but aim for neatness. These holes are used to inject the foam and allow trapped air to escape. When the job is complete and the lid replaced, the holes will be covered by the lid.
Insert the dispensing tube from the foam can into each hole in turn and fill until the space is about 50 percent full.
The foam will expand in every direction. If you overfill, the pressure of the expanding foam will distort the cooler and may burst the sides apart. Wait a few minutes, and if the foam does not start to come out of the holes, add a little extra.
Depending on the size of your cooler, you will need one to two cans. Drill some holes in the underside of the lid and repeat the procedure. The lid is far smaller, so be careful not to overfill. Though they are bulky, they will last much longer and work more effectively.
Use a light-colored wet towel to wrap the cooler and keep it under the shade. As wind passes over the towel, the water will begin to evaporate. As the water turns to vapor, it will make the towel colder. This will help keep the cooler's temperature down and making your ice last even longer. As you open and close the lid to your cooler, warm air will enter, melting the ice quicker. Organize your cooler with items that you will more frequently need to one side in order to lessen the amount of time the lid remains open.
Instead of having to dig around to find what you need, strategically organize your cooler to make each opening as efficient as possible. Dry ice, the solid form of carbon dioxide, has a much lower temperature than ordinary water ice Place the dry ice at the bottom of your cooler and then layer with regular ice overtop.
The dry ice will help cool down the regular ice and will turn into gas as it melts, leaving no unwanted messes or excess water to clean up after.
If you're camping for a few days, you may want to consider burying your cooler in the ground. You can buy a cheap yoga mat and cut it to size or get some foam from your local hardware store. If you're really stuck you can also use cardboard or towels to achieve a similar thing. Even if your cooler is completely full when you're packing at it can't be good to have a layer of foam anyway.
As your cooler starts to empty and the ice starts to melt your cooler will no longer be completely full and the foam will help everything stay cold for longer. Do you think it would make sense to keep cold water in your cooler as the water is colder than the surrounding air. However, water is much denser than air and can transfer heat much easier leading to faster ice melt.
However, while this will lead to your ice lasting longer it can lead to an overall warmer cooler. So if you're trying to keep a lot of items cold then you may still want to leave the water in. Free air space inside your cooler will lead to the ice melting much faster than if your cooler is completely packed full.
I first realize this when I was looking at the best coolers for ice retention. When using the same amount of ice in each cooler a smaller cooler with less air space performs way way better than a large cooler. Even though they had the same amount of ice the cooler with less air space stayed colder for longer. To minimize air space your first want to make sure you're using an appropriately sized cooler.
You don't want to use a cooler that is too big. Ideally you want to fill your cooler completely to the top with ice but if you don't have enough ice then using towels, cardboard or foam to reduce air space can also be helpful. The insulation in coolers is designed to stop the transfer of heat.
But you also want to minimize how much heat energy your cooler is exposed to. If you're leaving your cooler in direct sunlight then it's going to get a lot of heat energy from the sun.
Coolers are designed to stop heat transfer through conduction and convection however, they aren't designed to stop heat radiation energy from getting into your cooler. Aluminum is an excellent material at reflecting away heat radiation. This is why aluminum foil is so great at keeping food hot when you don't have a thermos.
Lining the inside of your cooler with aluminum will reflect away heat radiation from the outside and help your ice stay cold longer.
If you place your cooler on a hot surface then the ice will melt faster and your cooler will warm up quicker. Hot concrete as well as the back tray of a truck that is exposed to direct sunlight and hot to touch are bad places to keep a cooler. This is an effective method for keeping your cool a cold or longer when at the beach or when camping.
Well the surface of the ground may be hot the ground is a natural insulator and the further you dig down the colder it will be. Partially burying your cooler in the ground can take advantage of this natural insulation and help your cooler stay colder longer.
This way it's deep enough to enjoy the natural insulation of the ground but not so deep that your cooler is going to fill up with dirt or sand every time you open it.
If your cooler is going to be in direct sunlight and you can't really avoid that then making a cooler cover from aluminum reflectix can help keep your cooler cold for longer. The below video shows you exactly how to make a cooler cover from reflectix bubble wrap.
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